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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Challenges Update

So the Winter Book Challenge that I was working on (hosted by A Semi-Charmed Life) ended on February 28. Overall, I did ok. I finished half of the books (completely ignoring the ones with food or directions in the title).

I was looking for a new challenge, and I thought about the Rory Gilmore Book Challenge. (I also just finished the seasons of Gilmore Girls over Mardi Gras... #teamJess) Over the course of seven seasons, Rory is shown reading or talking about a total of 339 books. (!!!!!)

I posted the list of books on my Reading Challenges page, but for a synopsis, these books span contemporary fiction, classic fiction, memoirs and biographies, short stories and poetry, and even a few guidebooks to traveling around Europe. I've already read 58 of these novels, which is not a huge dent, considering most of them I read in high school and undergrad and barely remember.

I'm definitely NOT putting a time limit on this, but I hope that when I'm stuck without a book to read or wanting something different, I can turn to Rory's suggestions. I'll probably skip all of the guidebooks and Stephan King books (horror is NOT my thing), but this list definitely made me realize how many classics I haven't read yet.

Whiiiiiiich led me to a Google search to find a challenge that is just about the classics. And of course, the second link I clicked on had almost exactly what I was looking for. Check out Books and Chocolate's Back to the Classics Challenge.

Here's the required categories:

1. A 19th Century Classic -- any book published between 1800 and 1899

2. A 20th Century Classic -- any book published between 1900 and 1965

3. A Classic by a Woman Author

4. A Classic in Translation

5. A Very Long Classic Novel -- a single work of 500 pages or longer, regular-sized print

6. A Classic Novella -- any work shorter than 250 pages

7. A Classic with a Person's Name in the Title -- First name, last name, or both, it doesn't matter, but it must have the name of a character

8. A Humorous or Satirical Classic

9. A Forgotten Classic -- This could be a lesser-known work by a famous author, or a classic that nobody reads any more

10. A Nonfiction Classic -- A memoir, biography, essays, travel, this can be any nonfiction work that's considered a classic, or a nonfiction work by a classic author

11. A Classic Children's Book

12. A Classic Play

(A few of these will definitely be read later in the year when I start teaching full time... especially that play!)Do you have any suggestions? I'd love to have a starting point on choosing books!